Laughing Penguin Presents: Jason Cooke, Chris Ramsey

Nowhere is the intense trial and error aspect of a comedians life better demonstrated than in the Edinburgh Fringe warm up season.The usual assured oration and audience baiting is replaced with, well, a slightly less assured, note aided oration and a more off the cuff audience baiting. The latter is mostly the realm of resident MC Tony Jameson, who’s scruffy charm sees him just about get away with targeting some of the more obvious areas of the audience.

Tonight’s Fringe preview at the Laughing Penguin is all about returning local talent; the first of which is award winner, and Hebburn lad, Jason Cook, who’s The End (part 1.) show successfully manages to be hugely entertaining and at times uplifting whilst topics such as spousal etiquette and Cooke’s own excruciatingly hilarious high maintenance are executed with a candour that allows him to walk the line between coming across as a dick and garnering a peculiar sympathy.

Next up is star in ascendancy Chris Ramsey. There are a handful of problems with newer material but Ramsey soon overcomes them and the fact he does so with a few knowing asides and guilty looks of apology only serve to increase his strong everyman bond with the audience. He soon has them back under his power, throwing out stories about the inherent danger of living in a world populated by strangers that make up his Aggrophobic show alongside tales that should be familiar to anyone living in the North East (and some about DIY colonic irrigation that slightly less people will hopefully empathise with). Any problems should soon be ironed out, and Ramsey’s effortlessly bright and refreshingly un-cynical style should see him and Cooke making a big impression later this year in Edinburgh.